1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording target media cassette in which recording target media can be loaded, a recording target medium feeding apparatus that feeds a recording target medium, and a recording apparatus that is provided therewith.
2. Related Art
A recording apparatus such as a fax machine, a printer, or the like is typically provided with a paper cassette that can be attached to and detached from the body of the apparatus. In the structure of some recording apparatuses such as one disclosed in JP-A-2006-117362, an inner wall that faces the leading edge of sheets of paper stacked in a paper cassette is formed as an inclined wall so that it can function to separate the uppermost sheet, which should be fed downstream, from a second sheet and sheets under the second sheet.
A paper feeding apparatus that has a separating portion that performs separation for both thick paper and thin paper is disclosed in JP-A-7-267416. To fulfill its separating function for both types of paper, the disclosed separating portion is made up of an inclined face that is in a fixed state (hereinafter referred to as “fixed slope”) and an inclined face that has a projection that can appear on and disappear from the inclined face (hereinafter referred to as “movable slope”).
When the type of paper is thick paper, the uppermost sheet moves with a comparatively large force to depress the movable slope. Therefore, the disclosed paper feeding apparatus separates the uppermost sheet from the second sheet from the top on the fixed slope. Thus, the angle of the fixed slope is set at a value that is suited for thick paper.
When the type of paper is thin paper, the uppermost sheet moves with a comparatively small force. Therefore, it does not depress the movable slope. However, since the force with which the uppermost sheet moves is larger than the force with which the second sheet from the top moves, the uppermost sheet is fed downstream without being stopped by the movable slope, which is set at a steeper angle than that of the fixed slope, whereas the second sheet from the top is stopped by the movable slope.
As explained above, the paper feeding apparatus disclosed in JP-A-7-267416 utilizes a difference between the force with which the uppermost sheet moves and the force with which the second sheet from the top moves (i.e., a difference in stiffness therebetween) to selectively use a proper inclined face for separation depending thereon; that is, the fixed slope is used for separation of thick paper, whereas the movable slope is used for separation of thin paper.
However, if an inner wall that faces the leading edge of sheets of paper is inclined, due to a shock during the attachment of a paper cassette in which the sheets of paper are loaded to the body of an apparatus, there is a risk that the paper runs on the inner wall to cause a feeding failure.
In addition, when a user sets paper in the paper cassette, since the inner wall facing the leading edge of the paper is inclined, it does not give a good feel of edge contact. Because of the lack of a good feel of edge contact, the user tends to apply an excessive force thereto during the setting of the paper. For this reason, there is the same kind of a risk that the paper runs on the inner wall to cause a feeding failure.